BEIRUT: THE WORLD’S MOST DANGEROUS “WHO’S IN CHARGE?” EXPERIMENT

For years, Lebanon sold itself a comforting fiction: You can have a government with Hezbollah running alongside it.

Two systems. One country. No problem. Except, there's a big problem.

Because when missiles start flying, Israel doesn’t target “constitutional gray areas.” It targets what it sees: weapons, networks, infrastructure, often embedded right in the middle of civilian life.

So neighborhoods empty. Civilians scatter. And nobody’s really in charge when it matters.

At the core of this mess is a contradiction Lebanon has been politely ignoring for decades: You cannot have a state monopoly on force… and also not have one.

The solution isn’t some grand philosophical breakthrough, it’s painfully obvious. Which is exactly what Lebanese MP and PM candidate Fouad Makhzoumi lays out:

Step one: declare Beirut a weapons-free city.

Not a “please consider disarming at your convenience” memo. A real line. A real deadline. A real policy.

Because without that, everything else is pointless.

Step two: actually deploy the army. Everywhere.

Yes, everywhere. Even the places that come with political sensitivities, historical baggage, and the unspoken rule of “let’s not poke that bear.”

A capital isn’t a patchwork quilt. It’s not “state-controlled with exceptions.” It’s either governed… or it isn’t, and right now, it isn’t.

Step three: make security visible.

Checkpoints. Patrols. Neighborhood posts.

Not to turn Beirut into a bunker, but to remind people there is, in fact, a state somewhere in this equation. Because at the moment, its presence can feel more theoretical than real.

Step four: take the weapons.

Yes, actually take them.

Because Lebanon has perfected a unique governance model: laws that exist, violations that are obvious, and enforcement that mysteriously never shows up.

A law you don’t enforce isn’t a law, it’s a suggestion. And armed groups don’t tend to follow suggestions.

Finally, step five: govern like you mean it.

Security isn’t just guns and checkpoints. It’s systems. Oversight. Basic things, like knowing who is renting what, where, and why, so your capital doesn’t double as an unregulated militia zone.

Which brings us to the part everyone tiptoes around: Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s favorite “let’s not get into that right now” topic. Except… it’s always “right now.”

Hezbollah is not a side detail. It is the detail. A political party, a military force, and a regional actor, all rolled into one, operating inside a country that is supposed to have its own army.

And for years, the strategy has been to avoid the issue and hope it somehow resolves itself. It hasn’t. It escalated.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth: Avoiding confrontation doesn’t prevent it, it just schedules it for later… with interest.

The answer isn’t reckless internal conflict. Lebanon has had enough of those.

But it also isn’t pretending this dual-power setup is sustainable while the region burns around it.

The only viable path is a structured, time-bound transition where one principle finally wins: The state controls the guns.

Not sometimes. Not selectively. Not negotiably.

Completely.

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